(CNSNews.com) - With Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) large victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday, some experts say this has ensured his place in the race for the White House.

"If Hillary had won in South Carolina, I think it would have been all over, but I don't think anyone really expected her to," said Michael Tanner, an analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute. "Now we go into Super Tuesday, and it's wide open."

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has said she is determined to keep campaigning. "We now turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard in Florida and the 22 states as well as American Samoa who will vote on February 5th ," she said in a statement Saturday.

"In the days ahead, I'll work to give voice to those who are working harder than ever to be heard. For those who have lost their job or their home or their health care, I will focus on the solutions needed to move this country forward," she added. "That's what this election is about. It's about our country, our hopes and dreams, our families and our future."

"Both candidates are going to win a number of states on Super Tuesday and collect a number of delegates, and it remains to be seen which of them has the advantage," said Tanner, adding that Clinton may have an advantage.

The latest Rasmussen four-day tracking poll released Monday shows Clinton with an 8 percentage point advantage nationally over Obama, and Clinton is 22 points ahead of former Sen. John Edwards.

Tanner, however, noted that Edwards does not have a good chance of picking up states on Feb. 5. "If a plane carrying Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were to crash, John Edwards still couldn't get the nomination," he told Cybercast News Service.

While he said Obama will likely get a "little bit of momentum," he added that the numerous contests on Super Tuesday "are not really dependent on one another. There is no single next state to take that momentum to."

But Lee Edwards, a distinguished fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Obama's message resonates with voters.

"I think that Sen. Obama's candidacy is a political phenomenon that cuts across factions within the Democratic Party and across party lines," he told Cybercast News Service. "I think that Democrats are responding positively to Mr. Obama's 'can-do' message - what is more American? - rather than responding negatively to Sen. Clinton's 'experience' message."

The Clinton campaign was criticized by some Democrats for the racial nature of their attacks on Obama, especially while campaigning in South Carolina.

"The massive outpouring of criticism of the Clintons for their tactics in South Carolina is withering fire, which may take a serious toll among Hillary's voters," said Dick Morris, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, in a recent column.

"Obama has avoided the race issue," Morris noted. "But after his smashing win in South Carolina, he embraced the issue and turned it around to his advantage. He did not go down the path of Jesse Jackson and base his candidacy on a rainbow coalition. Rather, he decided to rise above the Clintons and appeal to America's ecumenical diversity.

"So now Super Tuesday is a contest between those who are mired in racial division and those who are willing to transcend it," he said.

"It's basically Obama supporters criticizing the Clintons, and you would expect them to do this," said Tanner. "Everyone's always known the Clintons are the most ruthless campaigners in Washington. If anyone believed that Obama was going to be able to beat Hillary and that Hillary was going to do nothing about it was hopelessly naive."

He added that as race has become a central issue in this campaign, "Obama will run very well in Southern states with a high African-American population. Hillary is going to run very well in the Northeast - New York, New Jersey, as well as states in the Southwest with a high Hispanic vote just like Nevada."

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